Protecting the Individual

Updated Feb. 7, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

T he European Parliament seems poised to strike a blow for individual liberty. It's not every day that we can say that about the Parliament, which lately has seemed prone to fall victim to the demands of special-interest groups, as it did with its assault on the long-awaited takeover directive.

But by mostly fending off industry lobbyists who argued for excessively intrusive restrictions on the private copying of protected material, the Parliament, or at least its Legal Affairs Committee, prevented the enactment of...